This invention relates to devices and methods for practicing sports that use balls. In particular, the invention relates to the simulation of pitching volleyballs, or other types of balls of a similar shape such as dodge balls or soccer balls.
Practicing set-up plays, entry passes, passing, tipping, digging, spiking and other pitches of a volleyball on court is difficult because it is hard to pitch balls on a repetitive basis with particular pitch types, spin types and delivery trajectories. Even the most skilled of players find it challenging to get a reasonable number of repetitions with the qualities required for training. Providing practice repetitions of one or more hit types for an entire team would be impossible without a pitching device. As volleyball and other ball sport clinics have proliferated, the demand for repetitive quality pitches has increased even further where skill training must be provided for hundreds of younger inexperienced players at one session. Quality repetitions must also be available for even the most skilled of players, including professionals. Further, since volleyball drills involve different positions on a court, they must be positioned in different areas of the court requiring a portable device that can provide repetitive quality pitches and that can be moved quickly and easily. Portability during practice sessions is critical. Portability and movability are also important for ease of moving such a device to storage rooms or facility locations, or to vehicles to be transported.
Currently, there are a number of devices on the market for simulating the pitching of a volleyball for players. However, the machines are limited in terms of capabilities for offering practice of the different types of hits that occur during a game, including but not limited to passes, tips, digs and spikes. For purposes of this disclosure, the term “volleyball” will refer to a ball that is round shaped including a dodge ball or other round ball that is of a similar size, and the terms “hitting,” “setting,” “blocking,” “bumping,” “shooting,” “dinking,” “passing,” “tipping,” “digging,” “serving,” “killing” and “spiking” are used interchangeably (collectively, referred to as “hits” or the action of “hitting”) to generally describe the motion of propelling, pitching or throwing a volleyball. Typically, prior art volleyball pitching devices have two spinning opposing wheels that engage the ball as it passes through the wheels and impart speed and spiral spin to the ball. These opposing wheels can be adjustably rotated in unison around a central axis to cause the ball to spin in a particular direction simulating a hit curving to the right, to the left or in a straight-ahead motion. This allows for different degrees of spin imparted to the ball for simulating different types of hits.
A problem with prior art volleyball pitching devices is that they tend to have severe drawbacks. In particular, they do not offer a stable platform at different heights for different types of hits, and age or skill related differences. A two wheel throwing head is heavy. Stabilizing it at a height of approximately 10 feet off the floor to simulate a jump serve, for example, especially on recoil after a ball is launched is a significant challenge. Providing a stable platform that can simulate the flight of a jump serve with a variable spin setting in a reliably consistent manner over a significant number of pitches without failure has proven to be a challenge. Further, the prior art devices do not provide a structure that allow simulated hits from other heights in a configuration that is quick and easy to change with varying spin settings. Another drawback of prior art devices is that they are not easily portable, especially in view of the height and the stability required to provide a tall device that is capable of both jump serve hit simulations and low ball hit simulations.